Examine slide 1 at the lowest power and note that most of the section appears purple or bluish This is the parenchyma (or functional tissue) of the exocrine pancreas You will note that the parenchyma is rather indistinctly divided into smaller areas by slits of open space or by pink connective tissue (stroma)Endocrine Pancreas The islets of Langerhans are clumps of secretory cells (up to around 3000) supported by reticulin fibres, and containing numerous fenestrated capillaries There is a delicate capsule around each islet They are paler than the surrounding exocrine cells, as they have less rER These islets do not have an acinar organisation The islet cells are indistinguishable fromThe pancreas of insulinrequiring diabetics becomes progressively less capable of responding to the stimuli used for testing exocrine pancreatic function Frier, Saunders, Wormsley and Bouchier, 1976 and post mortem the whole gland is found to be shrunken and fibrosed Vertiainen, 1944 Furthermore the exocrine cells closest to the islets
Digestive The Histology Guide
